Telephone users often find it desirable to have information about the origin and destination of a received call prior to the call being answered. Because the telephone user may not be near to a telephone, the use of visual signaling may not provide the information desired. Some telephone communication systems now provide users with distinctive ringing signals which identify whether the received call is an external (central office) call or an internal (intercom) call. Additional information, such as the priority of an internal call, is also incorporated into this distinctive ringing signal format.
In other telephone communication systems, users are provided with call destination information using a personalized ringing signal. Personalized ringing enables each user to determine whether he or she is the destination of an incoming call by listening to and decoding the ring signal. In certain applications, telephone users desire both the distinctive and personalized ringing features in a telephone communication system. Existing telephone communication systems have not provided such a capability.